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On Wednesday evenings, we have spent the last year studying through the Minor Prophets. We are just about finished with that as we are in the final book, Malachi. If you are not familiar with Malachi, it consists almost entirely of a series of disputation speeches: an assertion is made, usually about God’s character; a hypothetical rebuttal in the form of a question follows; the prophet then restates the initial premise and offers evidence to demonstrate his claim. A couple…

We have been winding up this series of articles on baptism by considering if there is any scenario where someone should be rebaptized. We began to answer that last week with the story of the Ephesian Disciples in Acts 19. To briefly reiterate, there was a very eloquent and knowledgeable preacher in Ephesus, Apollos, but he only knew John’s baptism. Thus, he taught about Jesus, but it was incomplete; Aquilla and Priscilla instructed him more accurately, and he went on…

Last week, we considered what a person needs to know before baptism. To sum up, you must: believe in Jesus; be ready to commit to him; and understand what baptism means. That last point in particular needs to be carefully defined—it does not mean that you must understand every blessing associated with baptism for it to be valid. We must be aware that God commands it in response to the gospel, but our ignorance of every promise associated with it…

Over the past several weeks, we have looked in detail at what Scripture has to say about baptism in this space. We have seen that joining with Christ is at the center of baptism. We have noted the blessings that accompany baptism: forgiveness of sins, the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit, entrance into the Kingdom of God, and eternal life. We have also answered some of the common objections to placing this significance on baptism: baptism does not subvert…